SHHHHHHH...
It was the sound of falling embers around the room. They were the remnants of the wolves that Dreyer burned using his magic. Flames and dead wolves were scattered all over the place. Birthos, Malloy, Rafter, and Dreyer were all encircled around Kane to protect him. Kane started to feel embarrassed because of being scared for no reason.
When the wolves swarmed them at the entrance, Kane immediately turned around and ran away. However, the splashing sound of the murky water while he was crossing the swamp was maddening. Before he went further, he decided to go back as he felt it was safer to stick with his teammates.
Since the room was cleared, the group pushed forward. Dreyer walked alongside Kane.
"You looked like you were amazed at my skills?"
"Yeah, that was cool as fuck!"
"I changed my mind. I'll protect you, so don't worry. Just stay there, and we'll do everything."
Aside from the scary monsters, this was also the first time that Kane would see the spell in front of him. Kane already saw them from books and archived movies, but seeing it in Arcadia was a whole new experience.
While Birthos, Malloy, and Rafter were all attacking the monsters using their swords, Kane couldn't help but be mesmerized at the majestic flames that Dreyer was releasing that he didn't know that he had his mouth opened wide.
When there were crossing from one room to another, Kane would approach Dreyer and ask about magic.
"How can I also do that?"
"Not everyone can cast magic. I sold all my items to buy just one Skillbook, Fireball."
"Even if it was just one skill, it was still powerful."
While it was hard to master, mages were definitely one of the most popular jobs in Arcadia. The skillbooks to gain magical spells were too expensive to buy and required a lot of effort to master.
The system recommended for the players to just use the default melee combat at the start and just practice Magic when the player was already on the higher levels. However, a few people like Dreyer were skilled and dedicated enough to sacrifice and put a lot of effort to activate a single spell, Fireball.
[Fireball LVL 3]
Deals 100 magical damage at the targeted area. The damage is doubled on the center.
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Manacost: 20
Little by little, Kane became brave enough to be no longer scared of the monsters no matter how big and horrendous they were. While the others were protecting him, Kane was just looking around, trying to find the Moonshards. However, none of the stones in the rooms were the same as the stones that he saw in the pictures.
The group managed to clear a room once again. Dreyer asked where to go as there were 3 pathways in front of them. Birthos pointed at the rightmost path and entered it. At this point, Kane wasn't even looking at them anymore. He was too focused on using the in-game search engine.
[Search: Why can't I find moonshards in Fruit Eye Cave?]
He found out that there were already a few people who asked the same things. Kane quickly found an answer to his question.
[Answer: Moonshards are valuable items for crafting. It can be only found when the final boss fight started.]
'So, I need to actually survive all this shit to find that shar—'
"Hey! Hurry up!"
Birthos shouted at Kane because he was still in the middle of the room while they were all already ahead. While walking through the dark pathway, Dreyer was starting to doubt Birthos.
"Hey, Birthos, we're already tired. We also ran out of potions. How long do we have to continue this?"
"We're here."
CHIRP! CHIRP! CHIRP!
Upon heading to the next room, there was a large hole above them that allowed the light to pass through. The group was all delighted that they felt rejuvenated. Birthos walked forward and pointed at something big in front.
"Here we go, boys!"
The group immediately saw the sight of a massive red Monkey in the middle. But it was sleeping beside its gigantic staff. At that point, Dreyer no longer doubted Birthos.
"I had my doubts about you, Birthos. But I guess I was wrong. I guess B33FK1NG is really the real deal!"
Birthos smiled back as they finally reached the last stage due to their collective effort. If they continued like this, the Fruit Eye Cave would be cleared in ease. However, Kane had a different agenda. But Kane wasn't the only one.
Birthos also had a different plan.
'Well, well, well. Look at these idiots. They totally believed me. Now, I'll only need to dispose them.'
It turned out, Birthos was just like other players who takes advantage of the newbies. Since the Fruit Eye Cave will only release the rewards once the cave was cleared, only the survivors of the raid will receive the rewards regardless of their effort.
If Birthos was the only person that remained at the end of the hunt, then he will get all the rewards that were supposed to be distributed on his team. But killing another player will massively decrease a player's fame and reputation. However, Birthos planned to kill them, not by his hands, but in the hands of the Boss in front of them.
On the other hand, Kane, the other person with a different agenda, tried to look around for Moonshards. But just like before, it wasn't present in the room.
Slowly, Birthos tried to walk away from the group. He knew what the attack pattern of this Boss was. And the first attack was an immediate leap attack after it awakened. The Monkey would jump to the sky and will dive down to a particular area. The targeted area was usually part of the room where a lot of players gathered.
In a couple of steps away, Birthos could dodge the Monkey's first attack. However, he will be suspicious if he survived the attack that others didn't. To avoid the attack without others suspecting him, Birthos planned to volunteer in waking the Monkey up.
'Now, his first attack is a jump attack. He will definitely dive into a group of people. For me not to get hit, I needed to pretend to attack him fir—'
As Birthos was about to volunteer, Dreyer suddenly shouted.
"Hey, Kane. Since you didn't do anything since the start. Why don't you try to wake the Monkey first? Wake him up, then go back."
'SHIT!!'
Birthos was surprised. His plan was ruined.
'What the hell is this shitty Dreyer saying? Wait a minute... is he... does he wanted to sacrifice Kane too?!?!'
It turned out, Dreyer also had another ruse. While oblivious to the Monkey's attack pattern, Dreyer thought it was a good idea to let Kane get killed after he awakened the Boss. But it completely ruined Birthos' plans.
"Wait a minute, since I'm the party leader, I'll be the one to awak—"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
Suddenly, someone screamed and charged at the Monkey. It was Kane. He was already tired of waiting for the Moonshards to come out. Birthos was flustered.
'What's going on?! Why did he charge without hesitation? Wait. Don't tell me... he already knew the Monkey's first attack!! He really fooled us at his newbie acts!!'
And with that, Birthos completely misunderstood Kane and thought he knew its attack pattern.
As soon as he reached the toes, Kane leaped forward and punched the Monkey's toes.
POK!
The ground started shaking. The Monkey, who was just sleeping a few seconds ago, suddenly moved and raised its staff upward. A large health bar suddenly appeared in front of all the players.
THE FALLEN MONKEY LVL 15
HP: [1499/1500]
Seeing that he only did a damage of 1, Kane immediately took a step back.
'Fuck. I'm dead.'
That was the only words he could mutter upon seeing that the Monkey was about to slam its staff on him. But it didn't happen.
The Monkey leaped high up in the sky. Birthos saw it and quickly pounced away.
But the others realized it too late. The Monkey dived down and slammed its massive staff on them.
KABOOM!
There weren't any explosives in the room, but that attack had just created an explosion.
[Party Member Malloy Died]
That one attack managed to killed Malloy, reducing their party of five to four.
Dreyer and Rafter managed to crawl away from the small crater that the Monkey created. Both were heavily injured. Birthos, on the other hand, was completely unscathed.
'I guess my plan is still working. I can't take this boss alone. I needed them to fight it first, and then I'll let them get killed at the end.'
Despite some reroutes on his plan, he was finally back on track. However, Kane caught his attention.
"What the?? What the hell is he doing?!"
Birthos was confused as he saw Kane running from the direction away from the Boss. He ran far away until he reached the edge of the room. Birthos slouched down to look at what Kane was doing.
'Who is that Kane, really?! Did he know my plans?! He's also waiting for the other players to get killed! This mofo knew my plans ever since the start!!'
Kane wasn't stupid. If this was real life, Kane would quickly realize that these guys were just fooling him. He would probably let them get killed as karma and take all the rewards for himself.
But this wasn't the real world. This was Arcadia.
Back in the real world, the confused Kane had been staring at his VR goggles for a few seconds as it was all black except for one word in the middle.
DISCONNECTED
It took him almost a minute to realize that he got disconnected. Kane removed the VR goggles in rage.
"Uuughhhh!! I was soooo close to that Moonshard!!"
The truth about what happened was that when the Monkey woke up and jumped to the rest of the party members, the Moonshard finally appeared at the edge of the map.
As soon as Kane saw it, he ran to the edge of the map to mine them. But upon reaching the edge of the minimap, he got disconnected that his character was left in Arcadia standing still. Birthos misunderstood and thought that Kane was just waiting for Dreyer and Rafter to die to get the loot.
Back in Kane's apartment, Kane looked around and realized that he doesn't have electricity. Luckily, his laptop was fully charged, but he couldn't play since his internet got disconnected.
"Shit. What is happening? A blackout, right now?!"
Kane opened his door to look around but saw the shimmering light coming from the other buildings below.
'What the?'
He turned around and saw another note attached to his door.
THE NEXT THING THAT I'LL DISCONNECT IS YOUR WATER. MOVE THE FUCK OUT.
The landlord disconnected Kane's electricity due to his unpaid bills. Kane started scratching his head while thinking about what to do. Suddenly, a ray of light glimmered at him. It was already morning.
Kane immediately went back inside his room and took his laptop and VR set. He placed them in his paper bag and rushed out of his apartment.
After a few minutes of intense running, he finally reached it, the convenience store he used worked for. Kane took a peek at saw that it was already open. Kane also noticed that they already hired another employee. A slender woman with a sizeable chest.
'Dumbass bullshits. It took me months before they accepted me, and they accepted this woman in just one night. Pervert assholes!'
Kane suddenly remembered that he wasn't there to badmouth his former employer. Kane retreated back to the alleyway beside the store. He opened the laptop and saw that it managed to connect to the Wifi.
"Yeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh. Hehehehe!"
Kane quickly wore the VR set and re-entered Arcadia.
[Reconnecting]
[Welcome back, Kane250]
Kane managed to get back to the boss fight. But as soon as he got back, someone shouted.
"I'll never forget this, Kane!! You motherfu—"
SLAM!
[Party Member Dreyer Died]
The Monkey jumped to its left and fought Birthos. Kane quickly glanced at the status of the Birthos' party.
Kane [Alive]
Birthos [Alive]
Dreyer [Dead]
Malloy [Dead]
Rafter [Dead]
Seeing that there were only two of them left. Kane immediately took out his sword.
Birthos, trying his best to dodge the Monkey's attacks, saw Kane finally taking out his sword.
"So that mofo is really a pro! Now he's planning to fight because we're all dead! He finally showed his true colo—"
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
But Birthos was surprised once again. Kane raised his sword and slammed it on the rocks. He was mining using a freaking sword!
A notification appeared on Kane.
[Since you're not using a suitable item for mining, production yield will be reduced by 50%.]
"I don't give a shit as long as I get this material."
The Monkey swung its staff and swept the puzzled Birthos away.
PAK!
Birthos rolled over to regain his composure and ran toward Kane. But the Monkey leaped and blocked Birthos' way. With no other choice, Birthos stopped and finally faced the Monkey.
If things went wrong just like this, Birthos had a backup plan. There were cases where everyone died in a successful raid. This would happen if a player and the final boss died at the same time. If this happened, then all of the loot will be distributed to all players involved in the raid.
To prevent players from entirely relying on stronger players, the rewards were always distributed to the survivors based on the damage that a player made.
As for this case, Birthos was the one who almost cleared the whole cave. The only thing he needed to do aside from killing the Boss was to either kill Kane or to die with Kane.
'It's okay. I can kill this Boss. I'll still get around 60% of the rewards.'
Birthos took a glimpse at Kane's equipment.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
'He doesn't have any armor. He'll die with me.'
The Boss of the Fruit Eye Cave, the Fallen Monkey, was a level 15 monster with extraordinary abilities. It wasn't really hard to beat, but since only a few people faced this boss, only a few people knew the skills and moveset of this character, making it harder for players to clear this cave. And Birthos was one of those people who knew this Monkey's attack pattern.
As soon as the Monkey's health decreased to 1 HP, it will create a massive explosion that will blast every player in the room, including itself.
The damage will kill any player under 500 HP. The key to clear the room was literally teamwork. Players needed to help each other, share potions, and heal others for them not to have their health below 500 HP.
However, this party was literally composed of selfish idiots that they got themselves killed. Even Birthos only has 312 HP, and Kane only has 120 as his max HP. With that, both of them will surely die. If that happened, Birthos would get most of the rewards since he was the one who killed a lot of monsters.
Before he killed the Monkey, Birthos shouted at Kane.
"Hey, dumbass! You thought you'll survive this and take all the loots?! You won't survive this without wearing armor! That Ripped Leather Shirt fucked you up! Too much for being a pretender! Now... let's end this!"
Kane was confused.
'The fuck? Did he go mad? What's he saying about the loot?'
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
But Kane didn't care. He only wanted the Moonshards.
Birthos jumped toward the Monkey and unleashed a gigantic slash that depleted the Monkey's health. The Monkey froze, and then it started shaking, and then it glowed red.
Kane saw that the whole room suddenly brightened in red. He turned around and saw the Monkey that was about to explode. He looked below that Monkey and saw the smiling Birthos.
'Shit.'
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!
TOK! TOK! TOK!
Fragments of rocks started falling around the room.
*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*
Under the thick black smoke, someone was coughing.
"What is happening?! Damn it! It's disappearing!"
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
It was Kane. He was quickly trying to mine the remaining Moonshards before it disappeared. A few seconds later, the big stones disintegrated. A notification popped up.
Birthos [Dead]
Dreyer [Dead]
Malloy [Dead]
Rafter [Dead]
Kane250 [Alive]
[Kane250 has cleared the Fruit Eye Cave]
[Rewards will now be distributed]
[You received 1000 Gold]
[You receiv—]
Kane swiped it away and looked at the falling pieces of rocks like snow.
"Good thing, I used the large chunks of the shards to hide."
Before the explosion occurred, Kane remembered the description of the Moonshards.
[Moonshards]
Moonshards were magical fragments of the moon that fell on earth. The material itself is hard and durable, but no other use except for crafting. They are usually mined in silver caves.
Remembering that it was sturdy enough. Kane used it and hid behind it during the explosion. To his surprise, it actually saved him. Suddenly, his phone started ringing. He removed the VR set and took out his phone. He was surprised that it made his mouth opened wide.
"Holy shit! This was the reason why people are addicted to this game!"
In his phone, his credit card had just received money from Arcanos Corporation. It was the reward money for clearing the cave and Leveling Up to Level 5.